"The school had no link with al-Qaeda or Taleban - we were there to learn the God's religion"

[BurtWorm]

The US--almost ALL of the US--averts its eyes from what looks like a crime against humanity. The right doesn't give a shit for any people east of the Danube (except maybe for Israel and Taiwan), and even less than a shit for Muslims. The left seems more incensed over the idiotic and intentional misreading of Kerry's joke. But a lot of questions remain even to be asked about how 80 sleeping religious school students wound up dead on Monday at the hand of *someone's* government. What role did ours play in this slaughter?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6106716.stm


Inquiry urged into Pakistan raid
Damaged buildings at the school in the village of Changai
The school or madrassa was destroyed in the attack


Human Rights Watch has urged Pakistan to allow an independent inquiry into Monday's bombing of an Islamic school in which 80 people were killed.

The New York-based organisation said the death toll was so high that the government had to provide a "credible" justification for the raid.

The authorities say the school near the Afghan border was used by militants.

Survivors and locals insist it had no link with al-Qaeda or the Taleban, and that only students and teachers died.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government to allow independent investigators into the area, in the tribal district of Bajaur.

"The onus is on the Pakistani government to provide a credible account of the legitimacy of the attack resulting in the deaths of so many," HRW's Ali Dayan Hasan said in New York.


The Pakistani government says the school was used by militants as a training camp and that no civilians died in the attack, carried out by helicopters.

However the claim was challenged by two of the three who survived the attack.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Sometime down the road it will be reported that this one was

done by the CIA & it was all a mistake. The report will surface as part of a "Frontline" program that nobody will watch.

[BurtWorm]

2. The most likely scenario, by a long shot.

Not the only one, of course. But the most likely for sure.

[Recursion]

3. Guess what: "militants" ARE "civilians"

And any time you blow up their stuff, they're going to say "I'm just a civilian, why did you blow up this school?" And the schools are where some people go to learn about Islam; they're also where some people go to learn how to blow things up. This is an unavoidable part of guerilla war.

[BurtWorm]

4. What's the difference between a militant, a terrorist and a guerilla?

There are differences. What if every government had the right to incinerate anyone they say is a "militant?"

I always hear this resignation on Internet groups about the slaughter of people on the other side of the globe. "It's just a fact of war." What an amazing luxury we have to write off the murders of foreign strangers as "unavoidable."

[Recursion]

5. Yes, they mean different things

A terrorist is a person who, not in uniform and not in an order of battle, uses violence or the threat of violence against nonmilitary targets for religious, ideological, or political goals.

A guerilla is a person who, not in uniform and possibly not in an order of battle, uses violence against military targets.

A militant is, I suppose, anyone who is under arms but not in a state-sanctioned army.

As far as I have heard most of these Saudi-funded madrasas in Pakistan train guerillas in addition to training Islamic scholars.

[BurtWorm]

6. Is it okay to incinerate them on suspicion of training guerillas?

Is it really unavoidable to kill every kid in the school, whether he's being groomed to be a guerilla or not, or is it only unavoidable when the government decides to wipe out all the possible guerillas sleeping in the same building and doesn't care who else is eliminated?

[Recursion]

8. Ask the Pakistani military

I don't recall saying this strike was a good idea; I said this is the kind of thing that happens in a guerilla war. I don't think there can be a guerilla war without massacres like this. That doesn't mean they are the guerilla's "fault"; his only choice is to fight it or not, and he can't fight it symmetrically.

[BurtWorm]

13. This is not guerilla warfare.

This is Pakistan's and the CIA's idiotic policy to use radical Islam to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by proxy coming back to rip their asses off.

My main point is citizens of the world cannot allow themselves to be inured to this kind of indiscriminate slaughter. This is unacceptable behavior for any government, regardless of who they might have killed there. It's not enough to cluck the tongue and shrug the shoulders. Someone has to be accountable for this.

Would you be comfortable if it turns out this school was leveled by a hit from an American Predator drone? Do you think Americans have a right to know if an American Predator was responsible for this slaughter?

[JCMach1]

7. So, if we follow the pre-emption strategy to its logical conclusion

Why don't we just nuke all of Pakistan?

It is, after all, a vast training ground for terrorists. :sarcasm:


:wtf: we wiped out a group of high school students on mistaken intelligence once again.

What I can't stand is the BS spin we get by the US Government and the MSM.

[Recursion]

9. Well, we didn't do this, did we?

This was a (probably wrong) strike by the Pakistani military on Pakistani soil. For all I know the school wasn't even actually a training ground. Now, come up with a better solution for Pakistan than striking what they think are militant training facilities. I can't, so I try not to sling too much mud at them.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Maybe the Almighty Rumsferatu wanted to make humanburgers?

All hail the Great Demon Lizard!



Praise Almighty Rumsferatu!

[JCMach1]

12. You aren't reading the reports... Pakistan acted on CIA provided

intelligence. Also, CIA predator drones fired hellfire missiles in the attack.

[malaise]

11. They aren't showing the

thousands in the streets in Pakistan. People are pissed.